Domestic Helper Job Description in the Philippines: All-Around Role

TL;DR: An all-around domestic helper cleans, cooks, does the laundry, runs errands, and often supports a child or an elderly parent. Write each of those into the contract by name, because the whole risk of this role is scope creep. In Metro Manila the floor is ₱7,800 a month under Wage Order No. NCR-DW-06, effective 7 February 2026, and RA 10361 guarantees an aggregate daily rest of eight hours plus 24 consecutive hours off every week. Driving, business or farm work, and working at a relative's house sit outside the job unless you agree to them separately and pay extra.

Most Philippine households do not hire a specialist. They hire one person, call the job all around, and that word is where the trouble starts. A domestic helper job description that says "all-around" and stops there is not a job description. Month one is cleaning and cooking. By month four the job also holds the toddler after school, the dogs, the sari-sari store on Sundays, and Lola's house in the next barangay twice a week. Nobody decided this. It just accumulated.

The fix is boring and it works. Write the job down before you post it, in the same words you will use on payday.

What an all-around helper actually does in a week

Start from the week, not from a list of verbs. Walk through a normal Tuesday, then a normal Saturday, and write what has to happen and roughly when. The table below is the shape most Philippine households land on. Delete what does not apply to you rather than adding what sounds nice.

| Area | Daily | Weekly or occasional | Where it goes wrong | | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Cleaning | Sweep and mop the agreed floors, wipe surfaces, tidy the sala, take out rubbish | Deep clean of bathrooms, windows, aircon filters, under the beds | "The whole house" instead of named rooms. Second floors and garages appear later. | | Laundry | Sort and load, hang or run the dryer, fold | Ironing day, bed linens, curtains, hand-wash items | Uniforms and delicates added without adding time | | Kitchen | Cook the agreed meals, wash up, clean counters and stove | Marketing, restocking, defrosting the ref, packing baon | Cooking separately for four different diets on the same budget | | Errands | Nothing daily in most homes | Palengke or supermarket runs, paying bills, courier drop-offs, drugstore | Cash handling with no receipts and no float, then blame when it does not tally | | Childcare support | Meeting the school service, snacks, homework nearby, keeping the play area safe | School events, sick days | Sliding from support into being the only adult responsible for a small child | | Elder support | Reminders for medicines, meals, company, light assistance | Accompanying to check-ups | Turning into bathing, lifting, wound care, and night duty, which is caregiver work | | Pets | Feeding, water, cleaning up | Baths, vet trips | Three dogs arriving after the offer was agreed |

Two lines in that table do the most work. "Named rooms" and "agreed meals". A job description that says which rooms and which meals is already better than most of what you will find online.

The duties that are not in the job unless you pay for them

This is the part families skip and then argue about in month five. Some of it has a legal answer. Some is just fair practice.

Driving. A family driver is a separate job under separate rules. Wage Order No. NCR-DW-06 lists family drivers among the workers it does not cover, alongside service providers, so the kasambahay wage floor is not the reference point for driving work at all. If you want school runs, hire for it and price it. Our family driver pay guide covers what that costs.

Store, farm, or business work. RA 10361 says no domestic worker shall be assigned to work in a commercial, industrial or agricultural enterprise at a wage rate lower than that provided for agricultural or nonagricultural workers, and that in such cases the domestic worker shall be paid the applicable minimum wage. Minding your sari-sari store or helping at the family's rice land is not household work at kasambahay rates.

Working at a relative's house. You can arrange this, but the Implementing Rules of RA 10361 put four conditions on it. There must be an agreement with the kasambahay on the specific tasks. The kasambahay is entitled to additional payment of not less than the applicable minimum wage rate. You, the original employer, stay responsible for any liability they incur on account of the arrangement. And you may not charge the other household a single peso for it. The temporary work cannot exceed 30 days per assignment, and the other household is solidarily liable with you for unpaid wages during it. So "pwede naman siya sa kapatid ko every weekend, pamilya rin" fails on almost every condition.

Overnight care of a sick child. No statute names this one, so use the rest rule. The IRR guarantees an aggregate daily rest period of eight hours. A helper who was up from 1am with a feverish toddler did not get it, and starting the normal day at 6am anyway is how good working relationships end. Agree in advance what happens on a sick night: who takes which half, and what the following day looks like.

Being the primary carer for an infant. That is helpers.ph house rule rather than statute. If a baby needs a dedicated adult, hire and pay a yaya for that job, using our nanny job description guide. An all-around helper who is also solely responsible for an infant is doing two jobs badly, and the one that suffers is the one you care about most.

Housekeeper, yaya, or all-around: pick before you post

These titles are not interchangeable, and choosing the wrong one is why so many hires do not last past the third month.

Hire a housekeeper instead of an all-around helper when the real need is cleaning and household upkeep, and someone else in the house already handles the cooking, the marketing, and the care. That role is narrower and far easier to fill well. Our housekeeper job description guide has the duties and the hiring checklist for it.

Hire all-around when one person will genuinely carry cleaning, cooking, laundry, and errands across the whole week for a household of ordinary size. Hire a yaya or a caregiver when hands-on care of a person takes up most of the day. If you find yourself writing all three into one job description, you are trying to buy two salaries for the price of one and it will show up as turnover.

Hours, rest, and the rule most job posts get backwards

RA 10361 does not set a maximum workday for a kasambahay. What it sets is a rest floor. Section 20 gives an aggregate daily rest period of eight hours per day, and Section 21 gives at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in a week, with the schedule of the weekly rest day agreed in writing. If the kasambahay's preference is based on religious grounds, the IRR says it is respected.

Read that again, because plenty of job posts state it backwards as "8-hour work day". It is not. Eight hours of rest in a 24-hour day leaves a very long stretch of availability, which is exactly why a decent household writes an actual schedule anyway: start time, finish time, and the breaks in between.

The IRR also allows the two of you to agree to offset a day of absence against a rest day, to waive a particular rest day in return for an equivalent daily rate of pay, or to accumulate rest days up to a maximum of five. Waiving should be the exception. A helper who has not had a full day off in six weeks is not doing the job well by week seven. After one year of service a kasambahay earns five days of paid service incentive leave, which does not carry over and is not converted to cash.

Live-in and stay-out are different jobs, not different addresses

Job posts say stay-in helper or household helper; the law says live-in, and it is not "the same job, plus a room". The IRR makes the employer provide at least three adequate meals a day, taking the kasambahay's religious beliefs and cultural practices into account, humane sleeping conditions that respect their privacy, and appropriate rest and first-aid medicines for illness or injury sustained during service. None of it may be withdrawn or held in abeyance as punishment or discipline.

Stay-out has a requirement families almost always miss. Under the same IRR section, a live-out kasambahay must be provided space for rest and access to a sanitary facility. Not the outside tap. Not the CR at the sari-sari store.

Live-in works when the household truly needs early starts and late finishes and can offer a real private room. Stay-out works when the hours are predictable. Pick one before you interview, because it changes the pay, the boundaries, and who applies.

Put the duties in the contract, on Form BK-1

A written contract is not optional and it is not a formality. The IRR requires it in three copies before service begins, in a language or dialect both parties understand, following the DOLE standard contract known as Form BK-1. Barangays and Public Employment Service Offices hand it out free. You must give one copy to the kasambahay and one to the Office of the Punong Barangay where you live. On request, the Punong Barangay reads and explains the contract to both parties and witnesses it. If the kasambahay is under 18, a parent or lawful guardian signs on their behalf.

Form BK-1 has eleven contents, and the first one is where your job description goes: duties and responsibilities. The rest are period of employment, compensation, authorized deductions, hours of work and proportionate additional payment, rest days and allowable leaves, board, lodging and medical attention, deployment expenses, any loan agreement, termination, and any other lawful condition you both agree on.

Paste the duty table from your job post straight into that first item. Not a summary of it. The actual list. Our kasambahay contract template walks through each field, and the Kasambahay Law explainer covers the obligations that sit around the contract. You also owe a payslip, Form BK-2, every payday showing the cash paid and any deductions, and you keep copies for three years.

What to pay an all-around helper

The floor comes from your region's wage board, not from what your neighbour pays. Wage Order No. NCR-DW-06 raised the Metro Manila monthly minimum for domestic workers by ₱800 to ₱7,800, effective 7 February 2026, with no exemptions allowed. Outside NCR the numbers differ. As of 9 July 2026 the NWPC regional summary shows ₱7,000 in Region VII cities and first class municipalities, which covers Cebu City, ₱6,500 in Region XI including Davao, and ₱5,500 in BARMM.

Those are floors for the role, not the going rate for a good all-around helper with five years of experience who cooks well. As a market signal, Indeed's Philippine helper salary page reported an average of ₱15,376 per month from 306 reported salaries as of 17 August 2026. Treat that as a rough estimate from self-reported data, not a benchmark you owe. Use the salary calculator to build a monthly figure from the actual hours and duties, and check the 2026 regional minimum wage guide for your own region's current order.

Budget past the wage. The Social Security System requires a household employer to register, secure an HR ID number, and report the kasambahay for coverage within 30 days of the hiring date. The helper's share is deducted only when they earn more than ₱5,000 a month, and since every current regional floor is above ₱5,000, sharing is now the normal case rather than the exception. Our SSS contribution guide has the mechanics. Thirteenth-month pay is owed after one month of service, at not less than one twelfth of basic salary earned in the calendar year.

Skills that matter, and how to actually test them

Years of experience is the weakest signal on a resume. What separates a good all-around helper from an exhausting one is judgment under a shifting list. Knowing which of six pending tasks matters most at 4pm when a guest arrives, and doing that one.

Ask questions with a real answer instead of a rehearsed one:

1. Walk me through your last employer's Tuesday, hour by hour.
2. The ulam is burning, the baby is crying, and the doorbell rings. What happens first?
3. Tell me about a time you told an employer you could not finish something. How did you say it?
4. What food do you cook best, and what have you never cooked?
5. What did you find hardest in your last house?

Then run one paid trial day. Pay it at the normal daily rate, say in advance that it is a trial, and watch these things:

• [ ] Cooked one full family meal from your usual ingredients and budget
• [ ] Cleaned two named rooms to the standard you actually want
• [ ] Handled one load of laundry from sort to fold
• [ ] Did one errand with cash, and came back with receipts and change that tally
• [ ] Asked at least one clarifying question instead of guessing
• [ ] Told you when something took longer than expected

A candidate who asks questions on the trial day is not slow. They are the one who will not shrink your white shirts in month two.

Safeguarding when children or an elderly parent are in the house

Employing anyone under 15 as a kasambahay is unlawful. For working children aged 15 to 17, the IRR carries over the limits of RA 9231: no more than eight hours a day and 40 hours a week, no work between 10pm and 6am, and nothing hazardous or likely to harm their health, safety, or morals. They keep the full minimum wage and every benefit, including access to education.

Verify proportionately. Confirm identity, check references by actually calling the last two employers, and ask about the gaps in their work history. Our vetting guide explains what a verification badge does and does not prove. Do not hold original IDs, do not demand passwords, and do not circulate their documents in the family group chat.

House rules on phones and visitors have to work in both directions. The IRR guarantees respect for the kasambahay's privacy at all times, extending to all forms of communication and personal effects, and requires access to outside communication during free time, plus access even during work time in an emergency. So a rule like "no phone while you are with the children, and it is yours the rest of the time" is fine. Reading their messages, confiscating their phone, or banning visitors outright is not.

A domestic helper job description you can copy

Change every bracket. Do not promise a schedule, a room, or a benefit you have not decided you can give.

All-around domestic helper, [live-in / stay-out], [barangay, city]

Household: [2 adults, 1 child aged 7, 1 dog]. Home: [3-bedroom townhouse].
Schedule: [Monday to Saturday, 6:30am to 6:00pm], with [a 1-hour lunch break
and a 30-minute merienda break]. Rest day: [Sunday, agreed in writing].

Daily duties
- Clean and tidy [the sala, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and 3 bedrooms]
- Cook [breakfast and dinner] for [3 people]; wash up after each meal
- Laundry: sort, wash, hang, and fold [1 load per day]
- Feed and water [1 dog]

Weekly duties
- Ironing on [Wednesday]
- Marketing at [the palengke on Saturday morning] with cash and receipts
- Change bed linens on [Friday]
- Deep clean [the bathrooms] on [Saturday]

Childcare support
- Meet [the child] from the school service at [3:30pm], prepare merienda,
  supervise homework in the same room. A parent is home from [6:00pm].
  This role is not the primary carer and does not cover overnight care.

Not part of this job (separate agreement and separate pay)
- Driving the family
- Working at another household, including relatives
- Any work for a family business, store, or farm
- Overnight care of a sick child

Pay and benefits
- ₱[amount] per month, paid in cash on [the 15th and the 30th], with a payslip
- SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG registration and remittance by the employer
- 13th-month pay; 5 days paid service incentive leave after one year
- Live-in: private room, three meals a day, first-aid medicines
- Stay-out: rest space and access to a sanitary facility during the shift

Contract: DOLE Form BK-1, signed before the first working day, three copies.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the duties and responsibilities of an all-around domestic helper?

A typical all-around role covers cleaning the agreed rooms, laundry and ironing, cooking family meals, washing up, marketing and errands, and support with a child or an elderly parent when that support is written into the contract. The load-bearing word is agreed. Name the rooms, the meals, the laundry days, and the care tasks in the contract so the job does not quietly grow every month.

How many hours can a kasambahay work in a day?

RA 10361 does not set a maximum workday for a kasambahay. It guarantees an aggregate daily rest period of eight hours and at least 24 consecutive hours of rest each week, with the rest day agreed in writing. Because the law sets a rest floor rather than a shift, a fair household still writes the start time, the finish time, and the breaks into the contract.

Can I ask my kasambahay to work at my mother's house?

Only by agreement, with extra pay, and for no more than 30 days per assignment. The Implementing Rules of RA 10361 require an agreement on the specific tasks, additional payment of not less than the applicable minimum wage, and that you stay responsible for any liability they incur there. You may not charge the other household anything for the arrangement.

What is the minimum wage for a domestic helper in 2026?

In Metro Manila the floor is ₱7,800 a month under Wage Order No. NCR-DW-06, effective 7 February 2026. Other regions are set by their own wage boards and sit lower, from ₱7,000 in Region VII cities down to ₱5,500 in BARMM as of 9 July 2026. Check the current wage order for your own region before you make an offer.

Should I hire an all-around helper or a housekeeper?

Hire a housekeeper when the real need is cleaning and household upkeep and someone else already handles the cooking, the errands, and the care. Hire an all-around helper when one person will carry cleaning, cooking, laundry, and errands across the whole week. If an infant or a bedbound elderly parent needs hands-on care for most of the day, that is a yaya or a caregiver role, not an add-on.

Post the job you actually wrote

The households that keep a good helper for years are not the generous ones. They are the specific ones. They named the rooms, agreed the rest day in writing, said out loud that the store and the driving and Lola's house are separate jobs, and held that line on the busy weeks too.

Once your duty list and schedule are on paper, browse helper profiles and screen candidates against that exact list rather than a vague sense of who seems nice. When you are ready to interview, create a family account and send the same written scope to every shortlisted candidate. It saves both of you from the conversation where nobody remembers what was agreed.